This is me age 38.
I join the 1% of women who go into early menopause before the age of 40.
Things haven’t felt quite right for some time.
Truth be told, I’ve been noticing strange goings on since late last year (2021) and the beginning of this year (2022).
My period has been missing in action for around 7 months (and before then had been pretty irregular at every 3 months) and my lower back has become so painful at night I spend most of it trying to sleep sat up and then crawl out of bed as best I can come the morning.
No periods I can handle…and positively celebrate….but my back had become so painful it’s started to affect day to day life and most depressingly training.
So I booked an appointment with the doctor to check everything was ok.
Two sets of blood tests later and I have been diagnosed with Premature Ovarian Insufficiency (POI).
So what does that mean for me?
The long and short of it is, the levels of oestrogen in my body are too low for my age. The ‘normal’ age for peri menopausal symptoms is around 45 and full blown menopause is 51 so I really am ahead of my time (but not in a good way!).
This means that rather than use HRT to relieve the symptoms of menopause (like most women do) I need to use HRT to bring my oestrogen levels back to where they should be for my age.
At first I was a bit like ‘sod the drugs let’s just get this sh*t over with’ but the doctor advised that with increased risks of osteoporosis and cardio vascular disease this wasn’t the best idea.
Being a woman is just a non stop flipping isn’t it?
So, I start my HRT tomorrow and am booked in for a DEXA bone scan to check my bone density in the coming weeks.
Cue violins…….I’M THIRTY-FLIPPING-EIGHT ?
Anyway – let’s not dwell on the negatives…the positive I’m taking from all of this is that I went to the doctor when I knew something wasn’t right. I need to acknowledge that my body is entering a new phase and ride the wave as best I can.
Since being diagnosed and completing some research, I’ve found out that oestrogen plays a big role in reducing exercise-related muscle damage and alleviating muscle inflamation. So this perhaps explains the aches, pains and soreness I’ve been feeling over recent months and hopefully the HRT might just help me feel more ‘normal’ again.
Fingers crossed.
As ever – I plan to share with you how it all goes. My hunger and excitement to train is still very much there, even with this little extra challenge to get my head round.